The POD recording tips, tricks, and eq-ing thread

[thedownside]

Originally Posted by HANIAK

Interesting...
I almost always use the TS without any drive (0%), so I can control the overall distortion in only one place (the amp)...
Am I the only one doing this?! Is there any disavantage?

i run the drive pretty low, 10% or so, but the level is almost dimed. even on a clean amp setting, there's still a fair bit of dirt

[Mattayus]

I have a question for Pod XT Pro users -

What resolution do you run it at? 16 or 24-bit? what's the best to run it at?

Thanks

[Rachmaninoff]

Originally Posted by Mattayus

i only put it to 15% for a bit of extra kick, but the difference between 0% and 15% isn't awfully noticeable tbh

I usually leave it around 10%, sometimes more, sometimes less.
Glad to know I'm not alone on this.

[HANIAK]

Originally Posted by Mattayus

I have a question for Pod XT Pro users -

What resolution do you run it at? 16 or 24-bit? what's the best to run it at?

Thanks

I'd go with 24bit.
More resolution = more quality.

On the TS subject, I need to give another try to the FX Boost+EQ, since EVERYONE seems to think it's better than the TS, which was not my opinion everytime I tested it...

[Mattayus]

HANIAK dude, this is my experience with it, it may help you -

Yesterday when i'd installed all my patches from my XT to my Pro, i started playing around with them (because i only had the metal shop before, not the FX pack). I, too, was sceptical about the boost+eq, and after trying it out i thought it sounded a bit plastic (for want of a better word). But in actual fact, it sounds much more natural, it's just that I was so used to the scooped and compressed nature of the TS that the boost+eq sounded much too exaggerated at first.

so, to come to this conclusion what I did was take my rhythm patch exactly how it is, replace the TS with the boost+eq, find a setting that i liked and that gave a similar sound to the TS, played with it, recorded a couple of seconds of playing, but didn't save the patch, and then let my ears cool down and switched back to the original patch with the TS... and it sounded like arse! I could really hear the cold ice-pick feel, and how week and 'thin' it was. So i went back to the boost+eq, played with it for longer, got some settings that work for me, and saved it. I shall never look back (BTW, the TS still kicks ass for leads!)

Basically, the boost+eq tightens it up, but without losing the bass content (i actually have the bass on 25% on the pedal, and it's still thicker sounding than the TS), and it's got MUCH less fizz, even with higher high settings. And, because it's before the distortion, the mids act in an awesome clear way, and don't make the tone honk, they just bring out the clarity and articulation

[HANIAK]

yeah, that fizz thing is the only thing I can't seem to be satisfied with my POD (without post equalizing the tracks in Cubase).
I mean, although I can get a strong punch on the guitars, there's always too much fizz (at least more than I want)!
If the Boost+EQ stomp is somewhat good in preventing this, then I definitely got to try it for a longer while.

Rock on!

[Mattayus]

Well i mean if a patch has fizz, the boost+eq won't take it away, i just meant that it won't add to it like the TS seems to.

the pod has inherent fizz no matter what. but you have to find the sweet spot for fizz on each patch, and each cab and each mic, and then dial it out with EQ.

generally speaking though they're all around the 5, 6, 7, and 8k range. i usually tame the big bottom's exaggerated high end with a -1 or -2db at 5 and 6k. not too much, or you'll lose presence

with the big bottom though, the highs are so OTT that even though you think you've killed them, try going to another amp model, then come back, and you'll see that it's still very high in the highs. it's a crazy amp

[damigu]

Originally Posted by Mattayus

I have a question for Pod XT Pro users -

What resolution do you run it at? 16 or 24-bit? what's the best to run it at?

Thanks

i always run my audio hardware at the highest resolution they are capable of. the higher the resolution, the more natural the sound is because it captures higher harmonics more faithfully (and reproduces lows with less distortion, but lows aren't really at issue with the resolutions we're talking about).

ultimately you'll be converting down to 16bit 44.1kHz because that is the CD standard, but it still pays to record at higher resolution than that.

think of it in terms of taking a picture of a picture with 2 digital cameras. lets say that 3 megapixels is equal to CD quality for the sake of this analogy, so your final picture has to be 3MP.
if you take the first picture with a 3MP camera, and then take a picture of that picture with another 3MP camera, you'll have the requisite 3MP final product but it may have minor distortions (sometimes not-so-minor, depending on how things line up).
if you take the first picture with a 10MP camera, and then take a picture of that picture with the 3MP camera, it'll still result in a 3MP picture, but at higher quality than otherwise.

that's essentially what you're doing with digital audio. you're taking an analog signal and converting it to digital. then, later on, you're converting it to a different digital format (different resolution). that's why it is better to do the initial recording at the highest resolution you're capable of even though the final mix will need to be 16/44.1.

of course, that's assuming you have the hard drive capacity to always be recording at highest quality.

[Mattayus]

Nice analogy, makes perfect sense

[Sang-Drax]

Two questions for you guys:

1. I was wondering... what kind of output you guys use live (specially those that plug the pod through a poweramp)? I used to change my output to "power amp in", "stack front", and "combo front" as the situation required, but now I just stick to "match studio". I think it sounds fuller and richer that way, on the contrary of what happens with the v-amp (which sucks a little less with the cab simulation off).

2. Has anybody tried using the "tweak" expression pedal as a whammy? Is it just me or it goes all wrong when you try to calibrate it?

[damigu]

1/ i set it to "stack poweramp" and turn off the cab/mic modeling.

2/ the whammy pedal does seem a bit buggy. with low notes, it kind of flutters between octaves for me. for fast use (like pantera's "suicide note part II") it works out just fine.

[thedownside]

Originally Posted by Sang-Drax

Two questions for you guys:

1. I was wondering... what kind of output you guys use live (specially those that plug the pod through a poweramp)? I used to change my output to "power amp in", "stack front", and "combo front" as the situation required, but now I just stick to "match studio". I think it sounds fuller and richer that way, on the contrary of what happens with the v-amp (which sucks a little less with the cab simulation off).

2. Has anybody tried using the "tweak" expression pedal as a whammy? Is it just me or it goes all wrong when you try to calibrate it?

1) it's been a while since i ran mine, but i would run the "power amp in" one, which then i plugged into my power amp, into a 4x12. i also left all the cab emulation on, i never like it without.

2) i've done it, sounds like ass. there whammy (or bender whatever it's called) blows. i bought a real whammy pedal instead

[Scootman1911]

Is there anywhere I can get some good distorted patches for a Pocket Pod (Pod 2.0)? I tried to download the ones from here but the majority don't work with it because they're for the XT or something.

[zuzek]

Yo!

Bursting into this thread as a new user, I really want to thank everyone for the valuable posts. I just got a Pod XT a week ago and this is the main thread that has already helped me tremendously with shaping tones. Thanks a shitload guys!

However, I have an issue I can't seem to solve. Now I also visit Andy Sneaps forum regularly and haven't found an answer for that there either. I hope anyone here is willing and/or able to help me out, cause I'm dumbfound.

Since I'm a student I'm on a pretty tight budget > recording with Reaper. The only way I've found myself able to record tracks there is by loading up GearBox outside of Reaper itself. When I try to add GearBox as a VST I can't load any tones. It just says "Compare Tone" "Save" etc. Am I ....ing up anywhere in particular or?

Also, I'm pretty familiar with impulses and stuff like Revalver. But how do I use them with the Pod XT? When I have Gearbox outside of Reaper and put a program like Voxengo Boogex with correct settings in the VST chain, I'm not getting any sound whatsoever. What am I doing wrong with this? I'm not sure how to properly arrange things to have the Pod XT function as the amp and the Boogex as the cabinet. Any thoughts you have, I'd much appreciate it.

Hope anyone is able to help me out, since I've been searching forums and google for some hours but I cannot find anyone even asking these questions. Maybe they're that retarded in nature!

Thanks again, will be sticking around here as there's a lot of valuable and helpful stuff on.

[Plankis]

Well, you need the vst version of gearbox to do so. Don't know its name, but it costs alot of money. You can reamp the sound, But you need to use the pods asio and change some settings. But that doesn't work too good either from my experiences.

Btw. I uploaded my patches if someone's interested: Plankis POD XT presets - eSnips, share anything

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I usually edit my presets against rythym tracks as the signal goes directly to the PC from the POD XTL via the USB. That way, any eq'ing that is needed later is only minimal.

[zuzek]

Originally Posted by Plankis

Well, you need the vst version of gearbox to do so. Don't know its name, but it costs alot of money. You can reamp the sound, But you need to use the pods asio and change some settings. But that doesn't work too good either from my experiences.

Btw. I uploaded my patches if someone's interested: Plankis POD XT presets - eSnips, share anything

Thanks for the very quick reply. In essence you were partially right, but it's possible with just GearBox. The reason why I couldn't find any posts about this is because I was absolutely retarded and overlooked something in Gearbox itself (I turned the cab/amp off instead of the cab itself). Laughed at my own expense because it's a pretty big mistake. Thanks anyway for your help, much appreciated!

[Plankis]

Sorry, I answered only half of your questions
If you want to use impulses remove the cab in gearbox, then record that, insert a plugin like KeFir or Boogex, load a impulses. Done.
Oh now I read whole your post. I dunno why you don't get any sound out of boogex. I have never had any such problems. Just twist knobs until you get some noise... Try some of the wet/dry knobs. Try KeFir if you don't get boogex to work, Less options but it works nicely too.

[budule]

Try this EQing to remove fizz (inspired by radley's hatmonic converger) ; just sharpen frequencies beetween 500 hz ans 2,5 khz (I tried myself with a simple graphic EQand my pod pro presets got rid of fizz).

[Mattayus]

Yeah that's pretty much exactly what I do, only don't make the dip quite that big or it'll kill the presence and will sound dull as ....

[budule]

Here's exactly my "fizz killer" setting on my DEQ 2496 ; for my rig and my amp sim, it doesn't kill my presence (it's about 8 khz) an doesn't mke it sound dull. Then I scoop the mids on the Parametric EQ ; Left guitar is some kind of vulgar dispkay of power tone, and the right one is some kind of reinventing the steel (I say "some kind of", because I haven't got Dime's rig and fingers, but it sounds very close to me). For both guitars, I use a combination of V30 cab 4x12 cab sim and Line 6 4x12 cab sim; panned 100% L/R.

Left:
- vulgar display tone + v30 cab (scoop more the low mids than the line 6 cab)
- vulgar display tone + line 6 cab (to give brightness)

right :
- reinventing steel tone + v30 cab (scoop more the low mids than the line 6 cab)
- reinventing steel tone + line 6 cab (to give brightness)

It rocks the world (Power metal era private joke )

I'll record a track as soon as possible

[Methilde]

WHHEEEE! I has a Line 6 Pod X3!!!

Now i'm figuring out how to obtain a sweet sounding metal sound for my guitar. currently have the dual amp feature in use with Bomber X-TC (bogner based) and the Angel P-ball (ENGL powerball based)

Anyone got more tips for this dual amp kinda thing? The meshuggah sound maybe?



EDIT: Line 7 is Line 6 ofcourse. all these 7 string 777's make me confused :P

[Mattayus]

Line 7 huh??! They've upgraded themselves!!

Here's my patch Sevenstring.org - Patch Library - Mattayus' PodXT rhythm

But that was before I got the fx junkie upgrade, so you might wanna change the tubescreamer to a Boost + EQ pedal.

[Methilde]

Cool! Thanks for sharing that I cannot really figure out how it works software-wize. The vyzex thingie doesn't work/isnt available, what will?

[Mattayus]

What the .... is vyzex!?

I use line6 edit, and/or Toneport to load the patches to and from my pod and edit them